An Analytic Evaluation of the Concept of Moral Certainty in Western Philosophy: A Historical Approach
Subject Areas : New findings regarding the development of ancient western philosophy (Greek and Hellenistic Philosophies)
Mohammad Saeid Abdollahi
1
,
Mohsen Javadi
2
,
Muhammad Legenhausen
3
1 - PhD candidate of Philosophy of Ethics, Qom University, Qom, Iran
2 - Professor at the Philosophy of Ethics Department of Qom University, Qom, Iran
3 - Professor at Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, Qom, Iran
Keywords: moral certainty, metaphysical certainty, epistemology, Jean Gerson, Wittgenstein,
Abstract :
Moral certainty is one of the functional concepts that has recently attracted the attention of some philosophers of ethics and epistemologists. During the last decades, philosophers have approached this concept from different angles; however, they have sometimes provided an incorrect and inaccurate concept of this term because of ignoring its origin and historical development and losing sight of the historical, religious, or legal context in which it might be used. Jean Gerson, the French scholar and educator, created the term “moral certainty” for an appropriate level of certainty. Later, Descartes defined it as a kind of certainty that is sufficient for organizing behavior and assisting people in solving life-related problems. On the other hand, John Locke included absolute certainty and moral certainty in the concept of his own “real certainty”. The concept of moral certainty has also undergone an interesting process of development in Christianity. In church law, the concept of moral certainty is used to describe the mental status of the judge when they should decide with certainty whether the accused is truly guilty or not. In this paper, after referring to the first applications of this concept in the history of Western philosophy in the course of a historical-philosophical research and a study of the development of the concept of moral philosophy in different periods, the authors demonstrate that the concept of certainty has been prone to many changes since the 14th century and its first use in Gerson’s works. They will also clarify the place of this philosophical term in today’s epistemology of ethics after its historical journey and presence in various disciplines, and how the Wittgensteinian approach to this concept has gained widespread acceptance during the recent decades after its introduction many centuries ago.
پاپکین، ریچارد؛ استرول، آوروم )1380 (کلیات فلسفه، ترجمه سید جلال‌الدین مجتبوی، تهران: حکمت.
دکارت، رنه (1386) سیر حکمت در اروپا، بضمیمه گفتار در روش، ترجمۀ محمدعلی فروغی، تهران: نیلوفر.
کاپلستون، فردریک (1382) تاریخ فلسفه، ج5، ترجمۀ امیر جلال‌الدین اعلم، تهران: علمی‌ـ‌فرهنگی و سروش.
لاک، جان (1387) تلخیص جستاری در خصوص فاهمه بشری، ترجمۀ رضازاده شفق، تهران: شفیعی.
لاک، جان (1394) جستاری در خصوص فاهمه بشری، ترجمۀ کاوه لاجوردی، تهران: نشر مرکز.
ویتگنشتاین، لودیگ (1387) در باب یقین، ترجمة مالک حسینی، تهران: هرمس.
مگی، برایان (1394) فلاسفه بزرگ، ترجمۀ عزت‌الله فولادوند، تهران: خوارزمی.
Ariso J. M. (2020). Why the Wrongness of Killing Innocents is Not a Universal Moral Certainty. Philosophical Investigations, pp. 12-10; doi.org/10.1111/phin.12298
Aristotle (1966) The Nicomachaen Ethics, trans. by D. Ross, Oxford University Press.
Bett, R. (1994). What did Pyrrho Think about the Nature of the Divine and the Good? Phronesis, vol. 39, pp.303-337.
Boespflug, M. (2023). Locke’s Twilight of Probability: An Epistemology of Rational Assent. New York: Routledge
Brice, R. G. (2013). Mistakes and Mental Disturbances: Pleasants, Wittgenstein, and Basic Moral Certainty. Philosophia, vol. 41, pp. 477-487; doi.org/10.1007/s11406-012-9385-2
Brown, C. (2009). Pastor and Laity in the Theology of Jean Gerson. Cambridge University Press.
Burnyeat, M. (1983). The Skeptical Tradition, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chappell, S. (2015). Moral Certainties. in Intuition, Theory, and Anti-Theory in Ethics, Oxford University Press, pp. 186-209; DOI 10.1111/japp.12182
Descartes, R. (1985) The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. vol. 1. trans. by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff & D. Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,.
Gerson, J. (1883). The Snares of Devil. London: Thomas Richardson.
Hahn, J. (2019). Moral Certitude: Merits and Demerits of the Standard of Proof Applied in Roman Catholic Jurisprudence. Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 8, ppp.300-325; doi10.1093/ojlr/rwz012.
Halbfass, W. (1974). Gewißheit. in J. Ritter (ed.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, vol. 3. Basel/Stuttgart: Schwabe, pp. 5923-594; doi.org/10.30965/9783846749388
Hermann, J. (2015). On Moral Certainty, Justification and Practice: A Wittgensteinian Perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hobbins, D. (2009). Authorship and Publicity Before Print: Jean Gerson and the Transformation of Late Medieval Learning. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hubert, M. (2024). The History of Moral Certainty as the Pre-History of Typicality. in A. Bassi, S. Goldstein, R. Tumulka & N. Zanghì (eds.). Physics and the Nature of Reality: Essays in Memory of Detlef Dürr. Heidelberg: Springer.
Kober, M. (1997). On Epistemic and Moral Certainty: A Wittgensteinian Approach. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. 5, pp. 365-381; DOI10.1080/09672559708570863
Laves, S. (2020), Between Realism and Relativism: Moral Certainty as a Third Option. The Philosophical Forum, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 297-313; http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/phil.12260
Laves, S. (2021). Why the Wrongness of Killing Innocent, Non-threatening People is a Universal Moral Certainty. Philosophical Investigations; DOI: 10.1111/phin.12323, 1-14.
Locke, J. (1997). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. by R. Woolhouse. London: Penguin.
Mazour-Matusevich, Y. (2023). The Early Modern Reception of Jean Gerson. Berpols.
McGuire, B. (1998). Jean Gerson: Early Work, Classics of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press.
McGuire, B. (2006). A Companion to Jean Gerson. Brill.
Pius XII (1942) (n 27) 339; see also 342; see also Pius XII (1941) (n 27) 423, 424, and 425. 310_Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Downloaded from https:// academic.oup.com/ ojlr/article-abstract/8/2/300/5510103 by guest on 15 August 2019
Pleasants, N. (2008). Wittgenstein, Ethics and Basic Moral Certainty. Inquiry, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 241-267, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00201740802120673
Pleasants, N. (2009). Wittgenstein and Basic Moral Certainty. Philosophia, vol. 37, pp. 669-79; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11406-009-9198-0
Pleasants, N. (2015). If Killing Isn’t Wrong, Then Nothing Is: A Naturalistic Defence of Basic Moral Certainty. Ethical Perspectives, vol. 22, pp. 197-215; dx.doi.org/10.2143/EP.22.1.3073462
Reed, B. (2011). Certainty. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/certainty/>
Rummens, S. (2013). On the Possibility of a Wittgensteinian Account of Moral Certainty. The Philosophical Forum, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 125-147; DOI 10.1111/phil.12006
Schüssler, R. (2009). Gerson, Moral Certainty and the Renaissance of Ancient Scepticism. Renaissance Studies, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 445-462; http://www.jstor.org stable/24419382.
Shapiro, B. J. (1985). Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth Century England. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Simmons, A. (2001). Sensible Ends: Latent Teleology in Descartes’ Account of Sensation. Journal of the History of Philosophy. vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 49–75; DOI 10.1353/hph.2003.0085
Stankiewicz, A. (2005). Moral Certainty and the Search for the Objective Truth. vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/intrptxt/documents/rc_pc_intrptxt_doc_20050208_pre seznt-dignitas-connubii_en.html>
